New Bremen eliminates Perry girls

WAPAKONETA - New Bremen took nothing for granted and let nothing slide in its 58-34 win over Perry in the first round of the Division IV girls basketball sectional at Wapakoneta High School on Wednesday night.

Perry, on the other hand, had already suffered a costly slide before the game began.

No. 3-ranked New Bremen (20-1) dominated the game, and would have been a big favorite under any circumstances. Marion Local beat Waynesfield 59-34 in Wednesday's other game at Wapakoneta.

Meanwhile, the Commodores (12-9) also lost starting point Megan Patton to a broken finger, suffered last Saturday when she was demonstrating a head-first slide at a softball clinic.

New Bremen used 59-percent shooting, including 7 of 10 from 3-point range, to control the game from the start.

Stacy Timmerman, Jackie Niekamp and Jaclyn Dabbelt all scored 10 points for the Cardinals.  Shanique Southward led Perry with 14 points.

New Bremen shot 64 percent on its way to a 38-12 halftime lead and substituted freely in the second half.

"We shot the ball exceptionally well tonight," New Bremen coach Dave McFeely said.

"I don't know if we've made that many threes (in a game) all year. That's the best we've shot on the threes. We came into the game at 31 or 32 percent on them but we don't shoot that many," he said.

"At halftime we said we think we're going to win the game. Just go out and don't get sloppy, let's keep things going because we know bigger things are down the road."

While having Patton wouldn't have made up a 24-point deficit, Perry coach Jon Shively said playing without her definitely made the Commodores a different team.

"It definitely hurt not having her tonight," he said.  "I think the tempo would have been a little better, our ball control would have been a little better.  Defensively it would have definitely been better."

New Bremen, the No. 1 seed in the sectional, chose to play in the first round rather than taking a bye.

"I don't like a bye.  We could have taken that bye up top but that would have given us 10 days off," McFeely said.

The Cardinals will take on Marion Local at 8 p.m. on Saturday for a sectional championship.

In Marion Local's win over Waynesfield, the Flyers got 15 points and 10 rebounds from 6-foot junior post player Katrina Brand. Alyssa Winner also scored 15 points.

Marion Local jumped out to a 21-2 lead to start the game. Waynesfield went 6 minutes, 47 seconds between its first basket and its second.

The Flyers led 27-10 at halftime and extended their lead to 43-19 before the backups took over. Ivy Horn and Abbey Gray scored seven points to lead the Tigers.